Improvement in skeleton skirts



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

L. S. SCOFIELD, OF SOMERVILLE, ASSIGNOR- TO HIMSELF AND EID. BELL, 0F MALDEN, MASSACHUSETTS.

`IMPROVEMENT IN SKELETON SKIRTS.

Specification v'forming part of Letters Patent No. 36,06] dated July 29, 1862,

.To all whom/it may concern.-

Be it known that I, L. S. SooEIFLD, of Somerville, in the county of Middlesex and State of Massachusetts, have invented a new and luseful Improvement in the Construction of Hooped Skirts; and I do hereby declare that the following, taken in connection with the drawing which accompanies and forms part of this specification, is a description of my invention sufficient to enable those skilled in the art to practice it.

Many hooped skirts', it is well known, are constructed with a form approximating to the conical or to the frustum of a cone, having tapes or webbing extending from the bottom of the skirt in right lines toward the apex of the cone, and with hoops about equidistant from each other and nearly parallel t0 the bottoni of the skirt. These tapes and hoops are mutually united, so as to preserve the relative relation of 'each to the other and my invention relates to the means employed for uniting said parts and for supporting the hoops, as contradistinguished from other means en1 ployed for the same purpose-such as glue and other cements, metallic clasps, &c.-by which the cost of uniting the materials composing the skirt is much lessened and the wear of the skirt increased on account of the efficient uniting of the parts, while the symmetry of the skirt is not'injured by the manipulation required in uniting the parts.

The tapes may be Woven with pockets or sleeves or' double at the places where it is intended to attach the hoops, as shown in the drawings, or double tapes may be used, with the hoops passing between them, though the tape woven with the pockets or sleeves is preferable, as cheapest, lightest, and neatest in appearance. The hoops are covered with a textile abric woven around them, which fabric I make use of in fastening the parts together. This I accomplish bymeans of a cord, which, when the tapes and hoops are adjusted on the form, I pass by the aid of a needle through the material of the tape and through the covering of the hoops, and by any suitable convolutions of the cord with itself knot or tie it so as to prevent the cord from unraveling or pulling out of or away from the parts united. The cord is then continued without breaking its continuity along the tape to the place where the next hoop is located, and the tape and hoop are there united, as before described, and so on throughout the whole series of hoops used in the skirt, leaving the cord extending the length or height of the skirt and forming a part of the suspension of the hoops in like manner with the tapes. This manner of applying and using the cord differs from the ordinary sewing or stitching of the hoops to the skirt, because, first, the continuity of the cord is perfect along each tape, so that .there are no unsightly ends left. Being knotted, it cannot pull out or unravel even when this continuity is destroyed by accident or constant wear, and because, also, in ordinary sewing the thread used does not aid in or form any part. of the support of the weight-of the hoops.

To the use of metallic clasps for uniting the hoops and tapes the objections are that they add materially to the weight of the skirt, are

expensive, and are not sure to prevent the slipping of the hoops through the tapes.

To the use of glue 0r other equivalent cements the objections are that it is almost impossible so to use cement as to avoid daubing the skirt with it, it is more expensive than my method of fastening, and crumbles away and cracks oft in use.

In the drawing is shown a section of a skirt consisting of a part of two hoops and a portion of a tape of the variety which is single between the hoops and double where the hoops are secured to the tape, pockets or sleeves being formed therein in the weaving. The cord shown may first be secured to the waistband or belt ot' the skirt, and, passing downward along the length of the tape, is passed through it, and the covering of the hoop is knotted or tied and then passed down the tape into it and the covering of the hoop next below, and so on to the bottom hoop, the continuity of the cord being preserved.

The new manufacture of skeleton skirts described, in which the hoops are secured to the tapes by cords which pass through the purpose of securing the hoops and tapes together.

Executed this 28th day of J une, A. D. 1862.

tapes and through the covering of the hoops, and are knotted or tied at each crossing of the tapes and hoops, each of which cords extends continuously along each tape from the top to the bottom and serves to support the hoops in common with the tapes, as Well as the L. S. SGOFIELD. In presence of JOHN H. BLAISDELL, J. B. CROSBY. 

